our story

In 2012, Shivam Punjya, behno’s founder, went to India to complete his research on women’s health. While he was in India, he came across some of India’s most breathtaking hand-made textiles, and visited rural villages to learn more about the textile industry and the communities that produce them. As Shivam started to better understand women’s role in India’s garmenting and textiles industries, he learned that in many regions, up to 90% of India’s garment factories are powered by women. In other places, women are earning less than $1 per day to produce beautiful hand-spun, hand-woven textiles. He was astonished.

As Shivam’s “made in India” education continued, on April 24th, 2013, the Rana Plaza garment factory in neighboring Bangladesh collapsed. The devastating atrocity killed over 1100 garment workers, many of them women. That day the world was shocked and saw just how awful factory conditions in the garmenting industry could be. In order to prevent a similar outcome in India, a change had to be made and behno was born.

behno has partnered with a large nonprofit in India to create and build a new model of a garment factory in rural Gujarat. The factory will revolutionize the way garment workers are treated, viewed and employed. Along with adhering to international factory standards, the factory will strive to empower female garment workers by executing “The behno Standard”. The behno Standard focuses on ethical garmenting by implementing various programming, ranging from fair wages to garment worker health to eco-consciousness. behno is committed to raising awareness to the craft and character of “made in India” by focusing on high quality luxurious and tailored designs whilst providing our garment workers with empowering and safe working conditions.